BC Climate: Monthly summary and long term trends

Author
Affiliation

Aseem Sharma e-mail: aseem.sharma@gov.bc.ca

Future Forest Ecosystems Centre, FCCSB, OCF, BC Ministry of Forests

Published

December 18, 2023

1 October-2023 climate summary

  • October-2023 was on average 2.12°C more warmer than normal .
  • October-2023 was relatively drier than normal with most of BC exhibiting about 41% below normal precipitation and lower then normal relative humidity and soil moisture.
  • The average of previous 12 months climate parameters indicate that BC experienced drier and warmer climate then normal between September 2022 and October 2023.
  • The mean October temperature in BC is increasing significantly since 1950 at the rate of 0.02°C per year.
  • The long-term October trends indicate decreasing trend in October total precipitation and relative humidity.

Below you find the spatial anomalies and long term trend of air temperature, vapor pressure deficit (VPD), total monthly precipitation, relative humidity (RH), and volumetric soil moisture (0 - 1m depth) for the month of October-2023.

2 Mean temperature and vapor pressure deficit (VPD)

2.1 Anomaly: October-2023

Figure 1: Anomalies in mean temperature and VPD for October 2023 relative to climate average of October 1981 - 2010.

2.2 Last 12 months anomaly: September 2022 to October 2023

Figure 2: Average anomalies in mean temperature and VPD for September 2022 to October 2023 relative to climate average of 1981 - 2010 .

3 Precipitation, Relative Humidity (RH) and soil moisture

3.1 Anomaly: October-2023

Figure 5: Anomalies in total precipitation, relative humidity and volumetric soil mositure (0-1m) for October 2023 relative to climate average of October 1981 - 2010.

3.2 Last 12 months anomaly: September 2022 to October 2023

Figure 6: Anomalies in total precipitation, relative humidity and volumetric soil moisture (0-1m) for September 2022 to October 2023 relative to climate average of 1981 - 2010.